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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
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"The earth is but one country, and mankind its citizens."
95 stories on this theme.
An overview of the Báb’s mission, from His declaration in 1844 and His call to prepare for “Him Whom God shall make manifest” to His martyrdom in the barracks square of Tabríz in 1850.
The Festival of Ridván is come and the splendour of the light of God is shining from the invisible horizon of His mercy.
The Guardian trusts that the explanation he has given by wire regarding the suspension for a period of nine months of Bahá’í religious festivity has been made clear.
The essential joyousness of the Bahá’í religion finds expression in numerous feasts and holidays throughout the year.
On the 9th of July, 1850, the Báb Himself, Who was then in His thirty-first year, fell a victim to the fanatical fury of His persecutors.
On the eve of Naw-Rúz 1848 ‘Alí Khán, warden of the castle where the Báb was held, dreamed that the Prophet Muhammad was coming to visit Him. At sunrise he met Mullá Ḥusayn at the bridge, arriving on foot as in the dream.
On 22 April 1863 crowds of believers and admirers wept in the streets of Baghdad as Bahá'u'lláh left His house and was ferried across the river to the garden that His followers named the Garden of Riḍván.
After Bahá'u'lláh's passing, 'Abdu'l-Bahá made a garden by His Father's Shrine and carried water for it Himself. On Holy Days He led the pilgrims, carrying pots of flowers, to the Shrine.
On the morning of His martyrdom in Tabríz, a volley of 750 rifles left the Báb unharmed, and He was found finishing His interrupted conversation. Sám Khán withdrew his regiment, and another regiment carried out the execution.
Theresa cannot go to the party for Bahá'u'lláh's Birthday, so she shares the day with the animals on her family's farm and finds them, for once, all gathered together in peace.
'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away in Haifa on 28 November 1921. At His funeral some ten thousand people of every religion and race followed His coffin up Mount Carmel to the Shrine of the Báb, where He was laid to rest.
'Abdu'l-Bahá tells how Nabíl-i-Zarandí, who had spent his life in the service of Bahá'u'lláh, was overwhelmed with grief when Bahá'u'lláh passed away in 1892, and could not bear to live on without Him.
Esslemont's account of Bahá'u'lláh's birth in Tihrán on 12 November 1817, His wisdom and generosity as a youth, His refusal of His father's post in the Ministry, and His acceptance of the Báb's Cause in 1844.
Esslemont's account of the Báb's birth in Shíráz on 20 October 1819, His upbringing by a merchant uncle after His father's death, and a youth noted for piety, nobility of character and faithful observance of prayer.
When the Bahá'ís begged for a day to celebrate as His, 'Abdu'l-Bahá would not let it be His birthday, which belonged to the Báb, and gave them 26 November instead. A tablet of His calls the believers to be firm.
Nabíl's account of the evening of 22 May 1844, when the Báb met Mullá Ḥusayn outside the gate of Shíráz, brought him to His house, and declared His mission to him, the first to believe in Him.
In April 1863, before His exile to Constantinople, Bahá'u'lláh spent twelve days in the Garden of Najíb Páshá outside Baghdád, and there announced that He was the One whose coming the Báb had foretold.
In Tabríz on July 9, 1850, the young believer Anís begged to die with the Báb. The first volley only cut their ropes; before the second, the Báb held up the youth's example to the watching crowd.
In 1912, on the Feast of Naw-Rúz in Alexandria, Egypt, 'Abdu'l-Bahá explained the meaning of the blessed days appointed in every dispensation — days for rejoicing together, for unity, and for leaving "tangible philanthropic or ideal traces" reaching all mankind.
Bahá'u'lláh entered the Garden of Riḍván outside Baghdád on April 22, 1863. The river overflowed, and His family could not join Him there until the ninth day, which Bahá'ís now keep as a Holy Day.
At noon on May 3, 1863, the twelfth day of the Festival of Riḍván, Bahá'u'lláh rode out of the Garden of Riḍván and set out from Baghdád for Constantinople, as crowds of believers and others lamented His departure.
The friends wanted to celebrate 'Abdu'l-Bahá's birthday, but that day belonged to the Báb. So He gave them 26 November, the Day of the Covenant. In one of His tablets He urged the believers to be firm.
When Bahá'u'lláh went to the Garden of Riḍván, the river overflowed, and His family could not join Him there until the ninth day.
When 'Abdu'l-Bahá passed away in Haifa in November 1921, messages of sympathy came from Winston Churchill, Viscount Allenby and the ministers of 'Iráq, and the High Commissioner for Palestine walked in His funeral procession among ten thousand mourners.
In 1909 'Abdu'l-Bahá laid the remains of the Báb in the Shrine He had built on Mount Carmel. Twelve years later, after His own funeral, His coffin was lowered into a vault beside that of the Báb in the same Shrine.
After the Great War lifted the danger to His life, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spent His last three years receiving pilgrims, revealing Tablets and helping the poor, until He passed away in November 1921.
Dr J. E. Esslemont, who had been 'Abdu'l-Bahá's guest in Haifa, describes His peaceful passing and a funeral attended by about ten thousand people of many faiths, which he saw as proof that His life's work had not been in vain.
In November 1921 the Bahá'ís of Springfield, Massachusetts, cabled 'Abdu'l-Bahá for approval of a second race amity convention. He answered, "Approved; God confirms." The convention met on 5 and 6 December, a week after His passing.
On the Friday before His passing in November 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá went to the noonday prayer and afterward, despite great fatigue, gave alms to the poor of Haifa as was His custom.
About two months before His passing, 'Abdu'l-Bahá told His family of a dream in which He raised the call to prayer in a great mosque. Weeks later He dreamed that Bahá'u'lláh came and said to Him, "Destroy this room."
On Friday, 25 November 1921, 'Abdu'l-Bahá went to the noon prayer and gave alms to the poor. On Sunday, unable to leave the house, He received the Muftí and the Mayor of Haifa, and early on Monday He passed away.
After 'Abdu'l-Bahá's passing, Shoghi Effendi, stricken with grief, left the Holy Land for a time and placed the affairs of the Faith under the headship of the Greatest Holy Leaf, Bahíyyih Khánum, who administered them in consultation with the Holy Family.
'Abdu'l-Bahá's Will and Testament, written entirely in His own hand in three parts, was read aloud in January 1922. It named Shoghi Effendi the Guardian of the Cause of God and provided for the Universal House of Justice.
After Bahá'u'lláh's ascension, 'Abdu'l-Bahá asked the chronicler Nabíl to select passages from Bahá'u'lláh's Writings to form the Tablet of Visitation, the text now recited in the Shrines of Bahá'u'lláh and the Báb.
'Údí Khammár built the Mansion of Bahjí for his own family. After an epidemic, 'Abdu'l-Bahá rented it for Bahá'u'lláh, who lived there from 1879 until His ascension in 1892.
Túbá Khánum, a daughter of 'Abdu'l-Bahá, remembers Bahá'u'lláh's last illness at Bahjí, His farewell to the family, and the nine days of mourning in which the Master received more than five hundred guests and gave to the poor.
J. E. Esslemont tells how 'Abdu'l-Bahá arranged for Bahá'u'lláh to leave the prison-city of 'Akká for the countryside, how He lived simply at Bahjí, and how He passed away there on 29 May 1892.
Six days before His ascension in May 1892, Bahá'u'lláh called the believers and pilgrims at the Mansion of Bahjí to His bedside, thanked them for their services, and prayed that God would assist them to remain united.
Bahá'u'lláh wrote His Will and Testament, the Kitáb-i-'Ahd, in His own hand and entrusted it to 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His last illness. Opened nine days after His ascension, it directed His family and followers to turn to the Most Mighty Branch.
Bahá'u'lláh ascended at Bahjí at dawn on 29 May 1892. A telegram beginning "the Sun of Bahá has set" carried the news to the Sultan, and for a week mourners of many faiths gathered at Bahjí to grieve with His family.
In the last year of His life, Bahá'u'lláh addressed His last outstanding Tablet to a cleric of Iṣfahán whose father had condemned two beloved believers. He called him to repent and quoted many passages from His own earlier Writings.
In Adrianople, years before His ascension, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Ghuṣn, the Tablet of the Branch, which praises the station of 'Abdu'l-Bahá and calls Him "the Limb of the Law of God" and "the Trust of God."
The Báb and Bahá'u'lláh were born two years apart but on consecutive days of the lunar calendar. In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh names Their births among the four great festivals and says the two days are accounted as one.
In A Traveler's Narrative, 'Abdu'l-Bahá describes the Báb's early years in a few lines: raised in Shíráz by His uncle, a merchant in Búshihr, and known for godliness and piety long before He made any claim.
Khadíjih Bagum, the wife of the Báb, told Munírih Khánum how His uncles and aunts revered Him before His Declaration, and how He called the papers He asked for each evening the Book of the accounts of all the peoples of the world.
The Báb, Siyyid 'Alí-Muḥammad, was born in Shíráz on 20 October 1819 to parents who were both descendants of the Prophet Muḥammad. His father died while He was an infant, and His maternal uncle raised Him.
In Some Answered Questions, 'Abdu'l-Bahá notes that all Shíráz knew the Báb had studied in no school, yet as a young merchant He confounded the learned clergy of Persia, and He calls this the greatest proof that the Báb was a perfect Educator.
In Búshihr a man left goods with the Báb to be sold at a fixed price. The Báb sent him more than that price, because the goods had once been worth more, and refused to take back the difference.
In Karbilá, Siyyid Káẓim broke off his lesson when the young Báb sat down by the door, and said the Truth was more manifest than the ray of light on that lap. He would not say the name, and his students did not understand.
J. E. Esslemont describes the young Báb as noted for beauty, charm of manner, piety and nobility of character, faithful in prayer and fasting, and living in the spirit of the Prophet's teachings as well as the letter.
'Abdu'l-Bahá would not let His birthday be kept, for May 23 belonged to the Báb's Declaration. When the Bahá'ís begged for a day of His own, He gave them November 26. Star of the West records how they kept it.
Bahá'u'lláh wrote His Will, the Kitáb-i-'Ahd, in His own hand and entrusted it to 'Abdu'l-Bahá during His last illness. On the ninth day after His ascension it was read aloud, naming the Most Mighty Branch as the One to whom all must turn.
After Bahá'u'lláh's passing, enemies within His own family slandered 'Abdu'l-Bahá to Ottoman officials. The Chosen Highway recalls the Commission of Inquiry, the family's anxious waiting, and the Master's release in 1908.
Every year for some forty years Shaykh Salmán walked from Persia to Bahá'u'lláh with the believers' letters and carried His Tablets home, never losing one. After the ascension he served 'Abdu'l-Bahá in the same way.
In New York in 1912 'Abdu'l-Bahá declared His station as Centre of the Covenant and named the city the City of the Covenant. Three days before He sailed, He spoke there of the Covenant as Bahá'u'lláh's safeguard against division.
In Adrianople Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Ghuṣn, the Tablet of the Branch, which extols 'Abdu'l-Bahá as the "Branch of Holiness" and the "Trust of God" and foreshadows His appointment as Centre of the Covenant.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh told the believers to turn, after His passing, to "Him Whom God hath purposed." In His Book of the Covenant He wrote that this verse meant the Most Mighty Branch, 'Abdu'l-Bahá.
In December 1898 the first pilgrims from the West began to reach 'Akká to meet 'Abdu'l-Bahá. One of them, Mrs. Thornburgh-Cropper, later described entering the prison-city by night with Phoebe Hearst and being led up to the Master by candlelight.
On her 1905 pilgrimage to 'Akká, Julia Grundy wrote down a talk of 'Abdu'l-Bahá on obedience, in which He likened the Covenant of God to a Lifeboat and an Ark of Salvation, and the believers to fishes in the sea.
Between 1904 and 1906 Laura Clifford Barney put her questions to 'Abdu'l-Bahá in 'Akká, often at the lunch table. His answers were taken down in Persian, and He corrected the text twice in His own hand before it was published in 1908.
During the First World War 'Abdu'l-Bahá Himself cooked the Naw-Rúz feast for the friends at Bahjí. On feast days He gathered the poor children of 'Akká for sweets and sharbat.
The Báb gave His followers a new calendar of nineteen months of nineteen days, each month named after an attribute of God, with Naw-Rúz as its first day. Bahá'u'lláh confirmed it in the Kitáb-i-Aqdas and fixed the place of the extra days before the Fast.
On 13 April 1912, three weeks after Naw-Rúz, 'Abdu'l-Bahá spoke at a New York home about the seasons. The coming of each Manifestation of God, He said, is a divine springtime, and Bahá'u'lláh has renewed that springtime.
In Bahá'u'lláh and the New Era, J. E. Esslemont describes the close of the Bahá'í year: the intercalary days of hospitality and giving, the nineteen-day Fast, and then Naw-Rúz at the March equinox.
In November 1849, grieving for the martyrs of Shaykh Ṭabarsí, the Báb sent His attendant Sayyáh from Chihríq to visit their resting-place, asking him to return before Naw-Rúz, "the only one I probably shall ever see again."
At Naw-Rúz 1863 Bahá'u'lláh camped with His companions in a field outside Baghdád. On the fifth day He revealed the Tablet of the Holy Mariner, then had the tents folded; a month later He entered the Garden of Riḍván.
In two Tablets, one written in 1906 to American believers who had sent Him a New Year's greeting, 'Abdu'l-Bahá described a new cycle and a spiritual springtime, and hoped the believers would become "a new people."
The Báb inaugurated a new calendar of nineteen months, named after the attributes of God. In the Bayán He made the last month the month of fasting, set Naw-Rúz at its close, and designated Naw-Rúz the Day of God.
In the Kitáb-i-Aqdas Bahá'u'lláh confirmed the Báb's calendar of nineteen months and made Naw-Rúz the feast that closes the Fast. He later explained that it falls on the day the sun enters Aries.
In April 1863 Bahíyyih Khánum, then in her teens, helped the household prepare for exile while Bahá'u'lláh stayed in the Garden of Riḍván. The Tigris overflowed, and only on the ninth day could the family join Him there.
Mírzá Asadu'lláh Káshání and other companions pitched Bahá'u'lláh's tent in the Garden of Riḍván, cooked and made tea, held the tent ropes through days of wind, and kept watch at night during the twelve days of 1863.
On 22 April 1863 Bahá'u'lláh was ferried across the Tigris to the Garden of Riḍván. That same day the river overflowed, and His family could not join Him there until the ninth day.
Bahá'u'lláh crossed the Tigris to the Garden of Riḍván on 22 April 1863 with three of His sons. The river overflowed that day, and the rest of His family joined Him only on the ninth day, 30 April.
'Abdu'l-Bahá was eighteen when He crossed the Tigris with Bahá'u'lláh to the Garden of Riḍván in 1863. Shoghi Effendi records that He had recognized His Father's station while still a child.
Ásíyih Khánum, whom Bahá'u'lláh called Navváb, lost her wealth and home when He was imprisoned in Ṭihrán, and shared His exile. In 1863 she and the rest of the family joined Him in the Garden of Riḍván on the ninth day.
When Bahá'u'lláh was imprisoned in Ṭihrán in 1852, His family was left destitute, and they shared His winter exile to Baghdád. In 1863 a flooded river kept them from joining Him in the Garden of Riḍván until the ninth day.
Nabíl recalled that each morning in the Garden of Riḍván roses were heaped in Bahá'u'lláh's tent, and He sent them to His friends in Baghdád. A flooded river kept His family from joining Him there until the ninth day.
After leaving the Garden of Riḍván on 3 May 1863, Bahá'u'lláh travelled with His family and twenty-six companions across eastern Anatolia to Constantinople. Officials and villagers welcomed Him along the way, and His companions served Him on foot.
When Bahá'u'lláh's convoy left Baghdád for Constantinople in 1863, Muḥammad-Muṣṭafá Baghdádí remained in the city. 'Abdu'l-Bahá recalls how he stayed loyal, withstood the enemies of the Faith and taught it openly.
In the Garden of Riḍván, Bahá'u'lláh revealed the Súriy-i-Ṣabr, the Tablet of Patience, in honour of Ḥájí Muḥammad-Taqí, a survivor of Nayríz whom He named Ayyúb (Job). It praised the steadfast and prepared the believers of 'Iráq for His departure.
In Baghdád 'Abdu'l-Bahá grew into a youth beloved by all who knew Him. The Chosen Highway records how, before the exile of 1863, He shielded His Father, arranged His move to the Garden of Riḍván and set out with Him on the journey to Constantinople.
On the long journey from Baghdád to the Black Sea in 1863, officials and villagers received Bahá'u'lláh with honour in town after town. As the caravan neared Sámsún, He revealed the Tablet of the Howdah.
At noon on 3 May 1863 Bahá'u'lláh rode out of the Garden of Riḍván on a red roan stallion, the best His lovers could buy for Him. Crowds bowed at His horse's feet, and believers and unbelievers alike wept.
Summoned to Constantinople, Bahá'u'lláh spent twelve days in the Garden of Riḍván while a caravan was prepared. Then He set out with members of His family and twenty-six disciples on a journey of three to four months.
In the twelve days before He left Baghdád for Constantinople, Bahá'u'lláh showed, in Esslemont's words, the greatest joy, dignity and power, and the notables of the city, even the Governor, came to honor Him.
When Bahá'u'lláh left Baghdád in 1863, friends and strangers wept in the streets. On the day He rode out of the Garden of Riḍván, an eyewitness wrote, believers and unbelievers alike sobbed and lamented.
Shoghi Effendi calls Riḍván the holiest and most significant of all Bahá'í festivals. Its twelve days, which Bahá'u'lláh called the King of Festivals, ended at noon on May 3, 1863, when He rode out of the garden toward Constantinople.
On Naw-Rúz 1909, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá laid the casket holding the remains of the Báb and His companion in the marble sarcophagus on Mount Carmel with His own hands, and wept so that all present wept with Him.
On May 23, 1912, over a hundred guests gathered at the Breed home in Cambridge, where a cake with sixty-eight candles awaited 'Abdu'l-Bahá; He spoke only of the Báb's Declaration and soon left.
The substance of this chapter is this, that what is intended by the Day of Resurrection is the Day of the appearance of the Tree of divine Reality …
The world’s great Light, once resplendent upon all mankind, hath set, to shine everlastingly from the Abhá Horizon, His Kingdom of fadeless glory, shedding splendour upon His loved ones from on high and breathing into their hearts and souls the breath of eternal life.
O daughter of the Kingdom! Thy letter hath come and its contents make clear the fact that thou hast directed all thy thoughts toward acquiring light from the realms of mystery.
O ye real companions! Day and night Abdul-Baha is engaged in the remembrances of the friends, and time after time doth he associate with them and behold their blessed faces.
O ye servants of God and maid-servants of the Merciful! The letter, which was in reality the congratulation for the entrance of the day of the anniversary of His Highness the Promised One, was received.
On 23 May 1912, after speaking at a university in Worcester, ‘Abdu’l-Bahá joined the Boston Bahá’ís at Alice Breed's home to commemorate the Declaration of the Báb, spoke about the Báb's life, and lit the first candle on a birthday cake.